[Rainclouds]

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You do realize that most of the money you pay for a CD or whatever doesn't even go to the artist, right?

It goes to the huge multi-billion dollar a year music industries who hamper the creativity of artists everywhere by having a standard.

I have supported independent artists by donating money.

If you want to be mad at someone because the artists aren't getting enough money, be angry at the music industry.

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lol, don't try to tell me anything about the music industry. I am in the music industry myself. I am an artist with 3 record contracts, so I know exactly how it works.

Yes, there are a few rich multi billion dollar companies which I wouldn't want to sell my soul to, but that's only part of the industry.

The largest part of the industry consists of passionate artists and small passionate record companies who can only do it as a side income.

My income varies from either 18% (bad deal) to 50% (normal/good deal) of the profits the record companies make over my tracks, or 14% of the sales. However, my last 6-month royalty statement was comparable to an hourly rate in poker.
So no, they don't make all the money. They are not rich either, in fact they are having trouble keeping their heads above the water. They spend time promoting, they spend money on sending out promos to DJs, paying remixers. One of my tracks was worldwide released on vinyl, moderately successful, reached the #9 spot in the sales chart for the style in my country, but was barely profitable.

Part of the cause is the huge supply of artists nowadays, the other part is because there are so many people thinking "If you're actually paying for music in this day and age I lol @ you", thereby ripping off both the artists and the struggling record companies.

But at least you supported independent artists, I encourage that. I also encourage GoodCallYouWin's initiative, because keeping only 10 cents yourself is very modest given the amount of effort keeping such a site takes.